It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

The Illinois PGA Match Play Championship had long been played in May as the section’s first major championship of the season, and the site was traditionally Kemper Lakes in Long Grove.  This week, though, it’ll be the IPGA’s third major of the year and it won’t be at Kemper.

Pandemic concerns necessitated a change in scheduling as well as a switch to Elgin Country Club because Kemper wasn’t available. The format for the event was changed, too, with a Tuesday qualifying round determining the seeding for the 64 players who begin the matches today (WEDNESDAY).

One thing hasn’t changed, though.  Garrett Chaussard is back as the defending champion. The teaching pro at Skokie Country Club, in Glencoe, is going after his third straight title — a feat accomplished by only three other players.

Bob Harris, the former head man at Sunset Ridge in Northfield, won six straight times from 1958-63.  Two others strung three wins in a row. North Shore legend  Bill Ogden, who won the first staging of the tourney in 1952, was a five-time winner and took his last three from 1970-72. Curtis Malm, of White Eagle in Naperville, notched three straight from 2012-14.

If Chaussard, a former University of Illinois golfer, is to get his third straight he’ll have to adjust to a much different course. Measuring only 6,450 yards from the back tees, Elgin is much shorter than Kemper Lakes. Elgin, though, has a much more hilly terrain than Kemper, which was the site of the 1989 PGA Championship for men and  2018 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship among many big tournaments.

Chaussard, who tied for 25^th in Tuesday’s qualifying round to determine the seedings for this week’s event, doesn’t think the change in venue is a big deal.

“Match play is more of a hit or miss thing. It doesn’t matter much where you play,’’ he said.  “At Kemper it’d come down to all that water on the last three holes. Elgin is a different type of challenge.  Hopefully I can keep the trophy at Skokie for another year.’’

He wasn’t a major factor in the first two IPGA majors of 2020, tying for 25th in the Illinois Open and tying for 14^th at the IPGA Championship. He finished a strong tied for fourth, however, in the last of his four IPGA stroke play competitions, on Aug. 17 at Ivanhoe. Illinois men’s coach Mike Small, who won the IPGA Championship for the 13^th time last month, shot a 66 and was the low man  in Tuesday’s qualifying session.

There’ll be two rounds of matches each day of this IPGA Match Play event.  The field will be cut from 64 to 32 on Wednesday morning and from 32 to 16 in the afternoon.  Thursday’s matches will whittle the field from 16 in  the morning to eight for the afternoon quarter-finals.  Friday’s wrapup has the semifinals beginning at 8 a.m. and the championship match at noon.

 

Streelman is ready for U.S. Open

 

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman couldn’t survive the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields during last month’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, but he looked sharp in last week’s Safeway Open. That was both the opening event of the PGA Tour’s 2020-21 season and the last tuneup for the 120^th U.S. Open, which tees off on Thursday at New York’s Winged Foot course.

Streelman tied for third in the Safeway Open, which suggests he could contend at Winged Foot. Streelman, who turned pro in 2001, will make his seventh U.S. Open appearance with his best showing a tie for 13th in 2016.

The Safeway Open, at Silverado in California, also produced a good showing for Doug Ghim, the PGA Tour rookie from Arlington Heights. A non-qualifier for the U.S. Open, Ghim hovered near the top of the leaderboard for three rounds in the Safeway before a 71 on Sunday left him in a tie for 14^th place. That was still worth a $100,650 payday for the 24-year old, his second best showing on the premier circuit.  He tied for 12tth in the Byron Nelson tournament in 2019.

 

Here and there

 

Cog Hill, in Palos Heights, was to host the National Long Drive Championship this year until pandemic issues led to the event’s postponement. This week Ultimate Long Drive named Cog as the site of national championships for both its Amateur Long Drive and Xtreme Long Drive World Championships.  They’ll be held between Sept. 11 and 19 in 2021.

Curtis Thompson, who had been caddying for his sister Lexi on the LPGA Tour, won the Korn Ferry Tour’s Evans Scholars Invitational on Sunday at Chicago Highlands in Westchester. Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger tied for fourth and Northbrook’s Nick Hardy tied for 13^th.

Greg Sands of Texas Tech and Kim Lewellen of Wake Forest were named the coaches for the U.S. team in  next year’s Arnold Palmer Cup matches at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove.  J.C. Deacon of Canada and Sofia Aagard of Sweden will coach the International side.

The 34^th Illinois State Senior Amateur concludes its three-day run Wedneseday (TODAY) at Mt. Hawley in Peoria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slowly but surely the pro golf tours are getting back to normal.

PGA Tour Champions, the 50-and-over circuit, will be the first major one to welcome spectators at this week’s Sanford International in South Dakota. The PGA Tour itself, which has gone 14 straight weeks without fans since ending a three-month break over pandemic concerns, isn’t taking spectators yet  and they won’t be allowed at the year’s final two major championships – this month’s U.S. Open and November’s Masters – either.

The PGA, however, will hold its first pro-am since resuming tournament play at the Sept. 21-27 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic, and this week’s Korn Ferry Tour stop at Chicago Highlands, in Westchester, is also an indication that progress is being made. The Korn Ferry provides its players a direct path to the premier circuit.

Chicago Highlands will be the site of a pro-am Wednesday, minus spectators, and some very limited VIP viewing opportunities will be available for the 72-hole Evans Scholars Invitational, which tees off on Thursday. Contact Connor Claxton at the Western Golf Association (claxton@wgaesf.org) for details.  No daily admission tickets will be available.

Last year’s ESI was held at The Glen Club, in Glenview, and the event was to return there in May until the pandemic halted play.  The ESI was given new dates but, with The Glen not available, the  $600,000 tournament was moved to Chicago Highlands.

Scottie Scheffler, who finished play in the PGA’s Tour Championship in Atlanta on Monday, won last year’s inaugural playing of the ESI at The Glen.  The new dates put the Korn Ferry’s two Illinois tournaments on consecutive weeks with Australian Brett Drewitt winning the Lincoln Land Championship, also a $600,000 event, at Panther Creek, in Springfield, on Sunday.

While the Korn Ferry has its largest-ever contingent of Illinois members, the Lincoln Land event didn’t  bring out the best in them.  Only Northbrook’s Nick Hardy (tie for 35th) and Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger (tie for 42nd) played all 72 holes at Panther Creek.

Hardy, in his rookie season on the tour, is No. 17 on the circuit’s all-important point list.  The top 25 after the current season ends in 2021 gain membership to the PGA Tour.  Hardy doesn’t have a win but he has five top-10 finishes and made the cut in 15 of 18 tournaments.  That steady play has him one spot ahead of Drewitt, last week’s winner, in the point race.

Two Northwestern alums – David Lipsky (7) and Dylan Wu (12) — are also inside the top 25 and Deerfield’s Vince India (32) and Hopfinger (36) aren’t far off.

 

CDGA renovates Sunshine Course

Renovation work has begun on the three-hole Sunshine Course at the Chicago District Golf Association’s Midwest Golf House complex in Lemont. The facility, which opened in 2004, offers programing for individuals with special needs, military veterans and youth.

Wadsworth Construction Co. is spearheading the project.  Turf and bunker varieties as well as a variable depth practice green will be added.  The course is scheduled to re-open in the summer of 2021.

 

Here and there

While final totals are not in, the Illinois PGA reports that Tuesday’s Birdies for Charity event at River Forest Country Club pushed the money raised in its 10-year history to over $2 million.

Roy Biancalana, of St. Charles, was a three-stroke winner over Glencoe amateur Ted Pecora and Chicago teaching pro Mike Harrigan in the Illinois  Super Senior Open at Pine Meadow, in Mundelein. The CDGA Super Senior event is Thursday at Glenview Park.

The PGA Tour announced its 2020-21 schedule with the John Deere Classic, the only stop in Illinois, retaining its July 5-11 spot on the calendar, a week before the British Open.  The BMW Championship, played at Medinah and Olympia Fields the last two years, goes on the road again with Caves Valley in Maryland the site for the FedEx Cup Playoff event.

 

 

 

These have been quiet times for Mike Small, but that’s changing.  The University of Illinois men’s coach is back in the spotlight going into the Illinois PGA Championship, which tees off on Monday on Medinah Country Club’s No. 1 course.

Small, 54,  has won the tournament 12 times and there’s no reason to think he couldn’t do it again even though Medinah teaching instructor Travis Johns is the defending champion and will be competing for a repeat title on his home course.

Johns has been IPGA’s player-of-the-year four times in the last eight years.  Small won the last of his three player-of-the-year awards in 2008, as his coaching duties have limited his participation in section events. Small, however, leads the Bernardi point standings heading into next week’s 54-hole tournament.

Stymied as a coach by pandemic issues which have negatively impacted the collegiate season, Small has stayed at the top level in tournament play this month.  He was low club pro in the Illinois Open, finishing in a tie for ninth, then won the Illinois Senior Open for the fourth straight year last week. Next up is the section’s oldest tournament.  The Illinois PGA Championship dates back to 1922.

“I’m just grateful that we have places to play and tournaments to play in,’’ said Small.  “We haven’t been able to play much this year so any chance you get to play in an event, as a professional, you have to take advantage of it.’’

After the Illinois Open Small has an event bigger event. He’s one of nine IPGA qualifiers for the Senior PGA Professional Championship Oct.  15-18 at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, FL.  Among the other local qualifiers for the national event were Ivanhoe’s Jim Sobb and Biltmore’s Doug Bauman.

As a coach Small has created a collegiate powerhouse, but when and where his Illini will compete again is uncertain as college administrators debate how to handle pandemic concerns relating to all sports.

“Who knows what the future holds,’’ said Small.  “It’s a horrible pandemic, but life’s got to go on. I’m a proactive person living in a reactive world right now.  We’ll play where they tell us to play. We’re just trying to figure out how to help the kids get better while waiting to hear from the NCAA.’’

 

BIG PAYDAYS FOR STREELMAN

 

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman is in position to cash in big-time with the PGA Tour’s FedEx Playoffs teeing off on Thursday.  He goes into the three-event series at No. 22 so he was easily into this week’s 125-player  Northern Trust tourney in Boston and it would take a horrible collapse for Streelman to not advance to the Aug. 27-30 BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club.

The top 70 in the FedEx standings after the Northern Trust advance to Olympia Fields, and the top 30 after that event go to The Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta Sept. 4-7. The Northern Trust and BMW Championship both have purses of $9.5 million.  Prize money for The Tour Championship hasn’t been announced.

Even though the U.S. Open and Masters have yet to be played the FedEx Playoffs officially end the PGA Tour’s 2019-20 season.

 

HERE AND THERE

 

Mistwood, in Romeoville, has taken over management duties at 36-hole White Pines, owned by the Bensenville Park District, and Andrew Godfrey has moved over from Mistwood to be White Pine’s new head professional.  Godfrey is second to Small in the Bernardi point standings.

Elmhurst’s Mark Wilson, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, is in the field at this week’s 100^th playing of the Wisconsin State Open. Wilson, who has had trouble getting into tour events in recent years, won the Wisconsin State Open in 2001.

Pandemic issues have been far-reaching in the golf world, and Jerry Rich’s Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, has been a victim twice.  The Big Ten Championship had to be called off there in May and now – following the Mid-American Conference’s decision to forego fall sports – the Sept. 25-28 Rich Harvest Farms Intercollegiate, hosted by Northern Illinois University, has been canceled as well.  Next up at Rich Harvest is the Arnold Palmer Cup in 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

The biggest tournament for Illinois residents, the 71^st Illinois Open, concludes today at White Eagle in Naperville.   A day later the PGA Tour’s major championships for 2020, the PGA Championship, tees off at Harding Park in San Francisco.

Before August is over the PGA Tour will have completed its FedEx Cup Playoffs, which conclude the 2019-20 season, but this year’s U.S. Open and Masters still won’t have been played.  The Open was postponed until September and the Masters to November.

Locally, the Illinois PGA didn’t have a tournament until July due to pandemic concerns.  Now its second biggest of the section’s four major tournaments, the IPGA Championship, falls just three weeks after the Illinois Open.

Given all the postponements and cancelations caused by pandemic concerns, tournament pileups like this were inevitable. Big events for both pros and amateurs, local and national, will come fast and furious now and they’ll run all the way into December.  The Ladies PGA Tour has its two biggest events – the U.S. Women’s Open and Tour Championship – scheduled on back-to-back weeks that month.

Here’s some things to keep in mind from the standpoint of Illinois players while these tournaments seemingly run almost together:

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP:  Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman has handled the scheduling pileups better than most of his tour colleagues.  With two runner-up finishes and four top 10s, Streelman could contend for his first major title in this week’s PGA Championship.  He’s also No. 19 in the FedEx standings, so he’s in good position to stay in the top 30 and make it all the way to the Tour Championship, which concludes on Sept. 7. The three playoff tournaments are huge money events, and Streelman looks ready to cash in big-time. One of them is the $9.5 million BMW Championship, at Olympia Fields Country Club August 27-30.

PGA TOUR: Doug Ghim, the Arlington Heights product in his rookie season on golf’s biggest stage, has been struggling.  He’s survived only five of 15 cuts but things are looking up.  Though he didn’t qualify for the PGA Championship Ghim cashed the last two weeks in tour stops – a tie for 18^th (his best showing of the season) at the 3M Championship in Minnesota and a tie for 48^th in last week’s Barracuda Championship in California.

KORN FERRY TOUR:  PGA Tour cards won’t be awarded until the end of the 2021 season but Northwestern alums Dylan Wu (4) and David Lipsky (16) and Illinois product Nick Hardy (19) are all in the coveted Top 25 spots in the rankings now, and in position to move up to the premier circuit if they can stay there.  The Korn Ferry has two Illinois stops coming up next month – the Lincoln Land Championship at Panther Creek in Springfield Sept. 3-6 and the Evans Scholars Invitational at Chicago Highlands in Westchester Sept. 10-13.

ILLINOIS OPEN:  Whoever wins the title today didn’t have to beat the defending champion. Bolingbrook’s David Cooke, a two-time winner, had to call off his title defense when Chesson Hadley made the 36-hole cut (and finished in a tie for 17^th) at the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship on Sunday.  Cooke is Hadley’s caddie now.

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS: The 50-and-over circuit finally re-started its season last week with The Ally Championship in Michigan.  Jeff Sluman, the only Chicago player on the circuit, withdrew after a 74-72 start.

WOMEN: Winnetka’s Elizabeth Szokol suffered a similar fate as Sluman when the LPGA re-started its season with the Drive On Championship in Ohio.  Szokol shot 80-74 and missed the cut.

 

 

 

The Western Golf Association’s three most prestigious championships certainly will look different this year thanks to ongoing pandemic concerns.

An announcement from the PGA Tour this week declared that there will be no spectators at its tournaments through the FedEx Cup Playoffs. That means the second of those three postseason events – the BMW Championship Aug. 25-30 at Olympia Fields Country Club – can be viewed only on television.

Spectators will also be scarce at the WGA’s two upcoming amateur championships. Each of the 120 participants in the 120th Women’s Western Amateur, which begins on Monday (JULY 20), will be allowed to bring only one spectator onto the grounds at Prestwick Country Club in south suburban Frankfort. The tourney runs through Saturday, July 25.

The men’s Western Amateur, first held in 1899, tees off the following week at Crooked Stick, in Carmel, Ind. Each player there is allowed one caddie and one guest.

The PGA Tour hasn’t allowed spectators since resuming its schedule on June 11 following a three-month shutdown. The policy was to end at this week’s Memorial tournament in Ohio but the circuit changed its policy on that last week.

“Our BMW Championship team has been working tirelessly over the past several months to develop a comprehensive plan for a limited number of spectators, following guidance from the PGA Tour and county and state officials,’’ said Vince Pellegrino, the WGA’s senior vice president for tournaments. “However, we understand the challenges and concerns that Covid-19 has created and recognize the decision to proceed without spectators is in the best interests of everyone involved.’’

PRESTWICK PREVIEW: Sarah Shipley, a University of Kentucky senior, won’t defend her Women’s Western title. She’s has accepted an invitation into a Symetra Tour event in Battle Creek, Mich., instead.

The Women’s Western field will be headed by last year’s other finalist, Antonia Matte of Chile. Five Northwestern players – Brooke Riley, Kelly Su, Kelly Sim, Rachel DeAngulo and Charlotte Hillary – will be in the field as will Illinois senior Tristyn Nowlin, a tourney finalist in 2018.

Prestwick, designed by the late Chicago architect Larry Packard, is hosting the Western Amateur for the first time but was the site of the Western Junior in 1972 when Nancy Lopez won as a 15-year old. Lopez went on to win that event the next three years and then took the Western Amateur title in 1976 before enjoying a legendary career on the LPGA Tour.

Other former Women’s Western champions include Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Beth Daniel, Stacy Lewis and Ariya Jutanugarn. This year’s format calls for 36 holes of stroke play qualifying before the field will be cut to 32 players for three days of match play competition. The champion will be crown on Saturday, July 25.

NU ALUM WINS: David Lipsky, who finished his collegiate career at Northwestern in 2011 and had previously won two pro events in Europe and one in Asia, notched his first victory on the PGA’s Korn Ferry Tour at the TPC San Antonio Challenge in Texas on Sunday.

Lipsky, who won by four shots, went to the same high school in La Canada, Calif., as Collin Morakawa, Sunday’s winner at the PGA’s Workday Charity Open in Ohio. Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman tied for seventh in the Workday event, his fourth top-10 finish of the season and second in a row.

Both the PGA and Korn Ferry circuits will stay in the same towns for tournaments this week. Streelman is in the field at the Memorial, played on the same course as the Workday was, and Lipsky is again in San Antonio but the Oaks Course will be used this week instead of the Canyons.

BITS AND PIECES: Kemper Lakes has named Matt Simon as its new head professional. He replaces Jim Billiter, who took a position at Glen View Club, in Glenview. Billiter was the Illinois PGA Player of the Year in 2017. Simon had been on the staff at Biltmore, in North Barrington.

Kyle English, who tied for first in the Illinois PGA’s first tournament of the season last week, won the IPGA Assistants title on Monday. English, from Crestwicke in Bloomington, shot a 6-under-par 66 at Cress Creek, in Naperville, to win by one over Jeff Kellen, of Butler National.

The area’s first charity event of the season is Monday (JULY 20). It’s the fourth annual TimeSavers/Salute Outing to benefit military families and will be held at Rolling Green, in Arlington Heights.

Rob Wuethrich, a senior at Illinois Wesleyan, has been named the Jack Nicklaus National Division III Player of the Year.

Northwestern, Iowa and Indiana just upgraded their golf facilities. Now Illinois is doing the same.

The school announced that the Atkins family has donated about 300 acres in Urbana, which includes the Stone Creek Golf Course, to the University. Stone Creek opened in 2000 and was closed in January. It’s expected to re-open for public play in 2021.

“Our teams have always felt welcome at Stone Creek, and it’s been a privilege to call it our home course for close to 20 years,’’ said Illinois men’s coach Mike Small. “Now, with this gifting, we can continue to improve and update the facility with the intent to rival the top college courses in the nation.’’

Stone Creek will be renamed the Atkins Golf Club at the University of Illinois. The Atkins family already has its name on tennis and baseball facilities at the school. The family’s latest donation is valued at $15 million.

Small, along with women’s coach Renee Slone, have struggled along with other college coaches since the pandemic wiped our their spring seasons. Both will have players involved in the first two big national amateur events coming up this month.

Slone has three players in the field for the Women’s Western Amateur, which tees off on July 20 at Prestwick, in Frankfort. Small has five players in the field for the men’s Western Amateur the following week at Crooked Stick, in Indiana, and he could have more. Two other Illinois players are on the waiting list to get in.

The men’s event is again loaded with four college stars. Florida’s Ricky Castillo, is the No. 2-ranked amateur in the world. Georgia’s Davis Thompson is No. 4, Florida State’s John Pak No. 5 and Texas’ Cole Hammer No. 7. Hammer won the Western Amateur in 2018.

COG HILL SETBACK: For 20 years Cog Hill, in Lemont, hosted the PGA Tour. Once the BMW Championship departed in 2011 the Jemsek family — owners of the 72-hole complex — have been looking for a big event to takes its place.

They thought they had one this year when the World Long Drive Championship was scheduled there from Sept. 3-9. Those hopes dwindled this week when The Golf Channel, the owner of the World Long Drive, announced that all five of the qualifying tournaments were canceled and the finals at Cog Hill were “suspended.’’

“We’re hoping for 2021,’’ said Troy Newport, the Cog Hill general manager.

SCHACHNER’S HOT START: Michael Schachner, named the assistant men’s coach at DePaul earlier this year after spending several years playing on a variety of professional tours, had seven birdies and an eagle en route to shooting a 4-under-par 68 in the Illinois PGA’s first tournament of the season on Monday.

Kyle English, of Crestwicke in Bloomington, matched Schachner’s score at The Hawk Country Club in St. Charles. Schachner and English were one stroke better than host pro Brian Carroll. Illinois’ Small finished solo fifth.

BITS AND PIECES: The PGA Tour begins a two-week run at Muirfield Village in Ohio this week but there’s been one change in plans. Next week’s Memorial tournament was to be the first tournament since the resumption of tournament play on June 11 to be played with spectators. Now that’ll be without spectators as well.

Northbrook’s Nick Hardy is skipping this week’s TPC San Antonio Challenge on the Korn Ferry Tour after notching three top-10 finishes in four starts since the PGA’s satellite circuit restarted its season.

Jerry Rich, owner of Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, has promoted Vicky McGowan to director of golf. McGowan has been on the staff there for 10 years.

Reagan Davis, who spent six years as director of golf at Eagle Ridge Resort in Galena, just took a similar positions at World Golf Village, in St. Augustine, FL. World Golf Village is the home of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

David Cooke, a two-time Illinois Open champion and the winner in 2019, set the Naperville Country Club course record last week with a 64.

Dave Lockhart’s Golf360 television programs have resumed for another season. They’ll be aired at various times on NBC SportsChicago.

How’s this for a refreshing change of pace?

In a year where pandemic concerns forced the cancelations of tons of golf tournaments and the postponements of many others the Illinois PGA is actually adding an event to its greatly revised schedule.

The IPGA tournament season was to start in April, but the first event won’t be held until next Monday (JULY 6), with the first of five stroke play events. This one is at The Hawk Country Club in St. Charles.

New to the just-released revised schedule is a two-day team event at Metamora Fields. For now the event is being called The Fall Bestball. The IPGA tournament committee is still working on entry and format details for the event.

Also included in the revised schedule is a new site for the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship. It has been the first of the section’s four major events and was traditionally held at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove, in May. Now it will be held Sept. 15-18 and Elgin Country Club will replace Kemper Lakes as the site.

Three of the four majors, including the Match Play, were re-structured. In the case of the Match Play the first round will revert to a stroke play qualifier for seeding into the event with the low 64 advancing to the second round..

The Aug. 3-5 Illinois Open, first of the majors, had its field for the finals previously cut from 264 to 156 and only one site, White Eagle in Naperville, will be used instead of the two used of recent years.

Last of the majors, The Players, had been held at either Eagle Ridge in Galena or Metamora Fields in recent years. Now it’ll be played at Conway Farms, in Lake Forest, from Oct. 5-6, and only the top 35 players on the season point standings will be eligible. The Illinois PGA Championship, Aug. 24-26 on Medinah’s No. 1 course, is the only one of the majors with the same format and place from the original schedule.

Streelman bounces back

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman finished one shot behind champion Dustin Johnson in the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship on Sunday and credited his time on two Wheaton courses — Cantigny and Arrowhead – for his runner-up finish at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut. He said the two Wheaton courses were similar to the tour site where he last won in 2014.

“Coming off (three straight) missed cuts, I’m very happy with this,’’ said Streelman, “but being away from my family for three weeks is difficult. That was probably one of the hardest runs for me. The quarantine life out here – you just go back to the hotel, sit there by yourself and try to stay healthy. It gets lonely.’’

The PGA Tour isn’t allowing players’ families to travel to tournaments. Streelman’s wife and two children live in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Korn Ferry climbers

Northwestern alum Dylan Wu tied for fifth in the Utah Championship and moved into the No. 3 sport on the Korn Ferry Tour’s season standings. The Top 25 at the end of the 2021 season automatically advance to the PGA Tour.

Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, who tied for 27th in Utah, is No. 19 and Deerfield’s Vince India, bouncing back from a final round collapse the week before, tied for 18th and improved to No. 35 in the standings. The Korn Ferry circuit is in Colorado this week.

JDC champ tests positive

Dylan Frittelli, the reigning champion of the John Deere Classic, tested positive for the coronavirus after missing the cut in the Travelers Championship.

“I am experiencing no issues and feel great physically,’’ said Frittelli. “I was surprised and disappointed to learn of the positive test.’’

Because of the JDC’s cancelation, Frittelli’s JDC title defense was postponed until 2021. The tourney announced this week that it will be held July 5-11, the same dates on the PGA Tour calendar that is has held in recent years.

Last week gave us a glimpse of what golfers might be missing thanks to the PGA Tour’s revamped schedule. It would have marked the 30th anniversary of — at least arguably – of the greatest U.S. Open among the 13 played on Chicago courses. Hale Irwin, who got into the 1990 U.S. Open at Medinah via special exemption from the U.S. Golf Association, went on to become the first golfer to win the championship in a sudden death playoff. The drama was unforgettable.

Irwin, who won the first of his three U.S. Opens at New York’s Winged Foot, will have to wait to get his just historical due. It’ll come when the Open is played in September.

Fast forward to this week the PGA Tour stops in Hartford, Ct., for the Travelers Championship. It’s the first tournament on the revised schedule, created since the pandemic hit, that will be played in its original spot on the calendar. It’s had its share of drama, too – more, in fact, than most tour stops.

Hartford has produced some of the most spectacular scoring in PGA Tour history, and Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman is part of it. In 2014 Streelman won for the last time on the PGA Tour – and he did it with one of the most impressive performances ever. Streelman birdied the last seven holes en route to a 28 on the back nine, and that led to a one-stroke win over Sergio Garcia and K.J. Choi in the Travelers.

Streelman is in the Travelers field again, and in need for a solid showing. He missed the 36-hole cut in both tournament played since the circuit resumed play after a three-month break caused by pandemic concerns. He’s on a string of three straight missed cuts going back before the stoppage in play but did have a runner-up finish at Pebble Beach back in February.

Milestone scoring isn’t unusual at Hartford. Prior to Streelman’s sizzling finish six years ago the TPC River Highlands course was the site of the lowest round ever shot by an amateur on the PGA Tour – a 60 by Patrick Cantlay in 2011.

After Streelman had his big day Hartford was in the spotlight again for Jim Furyk’s 58 – the lowest 18-hole round in PGA Tour history — in 2016. Whether there’s more magic in Hartford, in another tournament played without spectators, remains to be seen and a proper look back at Irwin’s illustrious career may have been missed last week but it’ll come eventually.

The U.S. Open was to be played June 18-21 at Winged Foot course, and last Sunday would have marked 30 years since Irwin beat Mike Donald in the historic playoff at Medinah. That was Irwin’s third win in the U.S. Open, a victory that helped lead to his earning the label of golf’s “Mr. Chicago.’’ He also won the Western Open at Butler National in 1975 and captured the Ameritech Senior Open, a Champions Tour event played on Chicago courses, in 1995, 1998 and 1999.

“I don’t know what it was – the people, the courses, the culture – but Chicago always felt warm and fuzzy to me,’’ said Irwin during a stop last week in St. Louis. He has a home there, but spends most of his time at another residence in the Phoenix area.

While Streelman is struggling to find his game since the pandemic started Irwin isn’t sure he’ll even play again. Now 75, Irwin appeared in three Champions Tour events before the pandemic hit and his play wasn’t impressive.

“The reality is, if you’re spending more than you’re making, that’s a bad formula,’’ he said. “Four-five years ago I took retirement, which means you can start dipping into (his PGA) retirement fund. That also means you can play only 11 events. My game isn’t what it once was. Whether I’ll play again I just don’t know.’’

Irwin’s feats at least will be recognized eventually. He’s working with former USGA staffer Pete Kowalski on a project called Keeler1930. Scheduled to launch later this year, it will provide personal looks at various golf legends of the past.